My C7 hub is on a latest 2.3.4.139 sw.
I am not sure from which version this started but now when I am doing
manual local backup (i.e. storing backup on a PC) hub also creates a local
backup stored on a hub.
Basically the same backup is duplicated on a hub itself and on a PC.
This is not a problem but I wonder what is a logic behind this new feature?
Frankly to my eyes this makes no sense but obviously I am missing something.
EDIT.
I just noticed new 148 update which has some changes to the backup
and restore. Maybe double backup was removed. let me see ...
EDIT 2
Updated my C5 and C7 to the latest 2.3.4.148 sw.
The backup and restore page has different layout but
double backup is still there.
So what is the reason for this double backup?
I don't ever remember created/downloaded backups not working this way (with the rationale presumably being that the hub has to create one to let you download it in the first place, so it might as well store it like the automatic ones, too).
Of course the backup must be created first before it could be stored somewhere
(either on a hub itself or whatever external chosen location).
But why to store this backup twice?
Overnight hub does automatic backups and this is very good idea.
Once in a while I like to create a local backup stored externally to the hub.
In a past this was working as expected but sometime ago I noticed local
backup for the external storage started to take very long time.
Finally I figured out why it takes very long time - the hub stores this backup twice.
I don't see this as a problem but it does not make any sense at least to my
engineering eyes.
Do you mean you have two copies of the backup on the hub (not just two copies total, one on the hub and one you downloaded)? And, if so, that both are local (not one local and one cloud, if you have Hub Protect)? That is not something I've seen.
No, there is one copy stored directly on a hub (this is something new) and one copy on the
external storage (this is what it should be). There are total of two copies.
I do have Hub Protect. I guess, the observed behavior has nothing to do with the
Cloud Backup option.
As I mentioned, this is not a problem but makes no to little sense.
And I wonder why this was introduced?
Unless this behavior is somewhat very unique to my setup.
But it is very consistent and started recently couple versions ago.
FWIW when I click the “create and download” backup button, that creates a new backup on the hub even if my goal is to directly download it to my PC. I don’t think that’s new, as @bertabcd1234 said above.
If I download an already created backup that’s locally stored on the hub, by clicking the download icon next to that backup in the list, then it downloads that backup and does not create a new one.
Now (latest 2.3.4.148 updated today) layout is a bit different but I am
talking about this backup option:
The intend for this option was/is to create a backup and store it
externally to the hub.
It still does exactly this plus in addition it stores an extra backup
copy directly on a hub.
I cannot recall when exactly this started but in a past only single
copy was created for storing it on the PC.
Ah, good; this is what I thought you meant (and so is what my reply above was addressing)--but I figured it was worth asking.
As I noted above, and as others have noted since, I do not ever recall this behavior ever working any differently. If this is not desirable for your use case, you can delete any backup in the list.
Are you saying this was always a case?
Well, it could be but I never paid attention.
The reason why I noticed this because now creating this local backup
takes significantly longer time (3x or so).
But this could be a different story.
Now my questions is - Why time for creating a local backup significantly increased?
Starting in 2.3.4, taking a backup includes validation. The hub will restore the fresh backup into a separate database file (not the one hub uses to run automations, etc.) and do basic sanity checks. This takes time.
In 2.3.4.148, backups taken on shutdown skip validation; reboot takes too long otherwise.
